


The Visitors' Center

by wheel_pen



Series: Khan AU [11]
Category: Sherlock (TV), Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: F/F, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-08
Updated: 2015-11-08
Packaged: 2018-04-30 13:20:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,526
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5165282
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wheel_pen/pseuds/wheel_pen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An alien culture requires that someone defeat their champion before they’ll let the Enterprise crew enjoy their planet. If Kirk wants Khan to do him this favor, he’ll need to give him something in return.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Visitors' Center

**Author's Note:**

> The bad words are censored. That’s just how I do things.  
> I hope you enjoy this AU. I own nothing and appreciate the chance to play in this universe.

The room was large and comfortable, with huge windows that looked out over the landscape below, enticing people to leave the visitors’ center and explore the rest of the planet—perhaps the golden-pink beach and azure water to the east, or the elegant urban park and artisans’ market to the west. Succulent and tangy smells wafted up from the restaurants on the lower floor, and satisfied shoppers with their arms full of colorful bags passed by on their way to the transport zone to return to their ships—all bearing a shiny green holographic badge.

Kirk wanted one of those shiny green badges. He wanted to eat whatever it was that smelled so good, kind of like barbecue but not, and to walk on the golden-pink beach and through the artisans’ market. His crew could use some shore leave and this place had a great reputation, plus it was new to the Federation and Kirk would be the first human to see it.

There was just one little catch to gaining entry to the planet.

In an arena at the center of the hall, surrounded by windows, stood one of the locals—seven feet tall and granite grey, looking like he was hewn from the rock as well. Facing him was another alien from a ship that wanted to explore the planet—small, wiry, and green. There was a shrill whistle, and the two beings lunged at each other. The little green guy put up a decent fight, Kirk thought, but in the end he was dumped ignominiously on the floor, where his colleagues collected him and departed. No little green guys would be wandering the planet today.

“It’s kind of barbaric, right?” Kirk commented in dismay.

McCoy shrugged beside him. “Faster than visa paperwork,” he noted dryly. “Remember Aldebaran IV? Two dozen forms for each person, every trip planetside. Here, if one person from your ship defeats this guy, the whole crew can visit the planet forever.”

“It’s a weird system, though,” Kirk maintained, watching another fight. The granite man never seemed to tire of the activity. “Why would you let through only people who were _stronger_ than you? It should be the other way. And,” he went on, getting righteously indignant now, “what about species that are perfectly fine, but just don’t have physical strength? Like they’re brilliant engineers and artists and diplomats, just not so great at bench-pressing?”

McCoy glanced at him. “Then they fly on to explore somewhere else,” he pointed out. “Hardly a miscarriage of justice.”

“Yeah, but that beach looks nice,” Kirk sighed.

They both stared through the window a moment longer, wincing in unison as another challenger was dispatched. People _did_ occasionally win, they’d seen it just since they’d been standing there. Kirk opened his mouth. “You should not do it,” McCoy interjected before he could speak. “Foolish risk for the captain to take.”

“I wasn’t going to suggest _me_ ,” Kirk claimed. “I was thinking of asking Lt. Sk’nil if he wanted to volunteer. After all, he wanted to spar with Khan.”

“He _does_ spar with Khan,” McCoy corrected.

“Oh, I should go watch sometime.”

They were both silent, and almost certainly thinking the same thing. “You shouldn’t ask Khan,” McCoy finally advised.

Kirk agreed. “No, he’d be all…”

McCoy knew what he meant. “Yeah, he’d be too…”

They thought it over a little more, Kirk’s eyes straying to the beach. “I could ask him,” he floated.

“You could ask,” McCoy reversed. “Totally fine if he says no.”

“Right, no pressure,” Kirk nodded. Another pause, one last reality check on the situation. “Okay, I’ll ask him.”

Kirk contacted _Enterprise_ and was patched into Khan’s quarters on the fancy view screen the visitors’ center provided. “Hey Khan, what’s up?”

The look Khan gave him made him feel very stupid, right away. Khan was good at that. “ _I’m practicing weaving a watertight basket out of reeds_ ,” Khan replied, holding up a half-finished object, “ _and catching up on the last few centuries of biochemical research_.”

“Well, that sounds fun,” Kirk dismissed. “Hey, I was just wondering, do you want to come down here and fight a guy? So we can explore the rest of the planet. It’s a thing they do.”

He tried to sound very casual, like this was no big deal, but Khan was sufficiently intrigued to set his basket aside. “ _To gain access to the majority of the planet’s facilities, someone from the ship is required to participate in a physical altercation?_ ” he rephrased.

“Well, you have to win,” Kirk corrected. “How about it? I mean, if you want, no pressure. I could ask Lt. Sk’nil.”

Khan made an indifferent gesture. “ _I will do it_ ,” he agreed, “ _if you awaken two more Augments_.”

For some reason Kirk hadn’t thought about this. “What?” he replied, squawking a bit. “No way!” Three seemed like plenty to have wandering around the ship.

Khan shrugged and picked up his basket again. “ _Fine then_ ,” he answered negatively, rescinding his offer.

“Come on, Khan,” Kirk protested, seeing his golden-pink beaches slip away. He was not really sure he could ask Lt. Sk’nil—or that he would win.

“ _Are you being threatened, Kirk?_ ” Khan asked tolerantly. “ _Are you being held prisoner?_ ”

Kirk sighed. “No, we can leave whenever we want,” he admitted, seeing his point.

Khan preferred to drive it home, though. “ _Then what you’re asking for is a_ favor,” he spelled out patronizingly, and Kirk rolled his eyes as McCoy smirked on the side. “ _And I require a favor in return_.”

Okay, this was not in principle unreasonable, Kirk was willing to concede that. “Two is too many,” he tried to bargain. “How about one?”

He could see this was going to be a no. After all, Khan had nothing to lose. “ _One would be lonely_ ,” he answered, which was unexpected.

“What the--? Khan, there’s three of you already,” Kirk pointed out, even though he knew this was going to be refuted somehow. “It’s perfect, now you guys can play bridge.”

Khan had a subtle way of looking disdainful—none of his facial muscles seemed to move, but the message came across loud and clear. “ _Two new Augments are needed for companionship_ ,” he stated clinically. “I _cannot provide them with companionship, due to my exalted position as their leader_.” Kirk glanced over at McCoy, double-checking that Khan had, in fact, called himself ‘exalted.’ McCoy smirked and nodded slightly. “ _You should be capable of understanding this, Kirk_ ,” Khan went on arrogantly, “ _even if you_ do _tend to fraternize excessively with your crew_.”

Kirk rolled his eyes to cover the fact that he _did_ actually know what Khan was talking about. He liked to think of himself as an approachable guy, and he knew he had genuine friends aboard, like Spock and Bones, who didn’t let the captain thing bother them. But with some other people, especially in the lower ranks, there was something that _happened_ when he walked into a room—conversation hushed and body language became stilted. He tried to put people at ease, but he wasn’t always successful, especially when he’d just made an unpopular decision as Captain—say, letting the Augments up and about. Or limiting the amount of computer power allotted to multiplayer video games, that hadn’t been well-liked either, but honestly, they needed the computer to fly the ship, too.

Kirk had the feeling Khan not only _expected_ that distance, he _insisted_ upon it. But still, Kirk did kind of know what he meant. Except for—

“What about Hamish and Ruby?” he asked, putting indignation into his tone. They ought to be able to socialize perfectly well.

Khan hesitated, only for a fraction of a second, and Kirk felt slightly shocked to have caught it. “ _They are_ my _companions_ ,” he said, in a proprietary way, but Kirk’s eyes narrowed as he sensed this wasn’t the whole story. “ _Their primary duty is to tend to my_ —“

Hamish’s head popped into view on the screen. “ _The other Augments don’t like us, Captain_ ,” he translated, with a wry twist of his lips.

“ _They love you_ ,” Khan corrected him, a bit sharply.

Ruby’s head came in sideways. “ _They_ love _us, but they don’t_ like _us_ ,” she summarized.

Khan did not dispute this but merely pushed some of Ruby’s hair gently aside so he could see Kirk. “ _There are some compatibility issues_ ,” he acknowledged tellingly. Then he turned the icy disdain back on, as if surprised he’d dropped it. “ _Hamish and Ruby are to me what Mr. Spock and Dr. McCoy are to you_ ,” he proclaimed grandly, as if he was putting it in simple terms for a simple mind.

McCoy could not let this one get past and slid around to Kirk’s side. “So if Hamish, as the doctor, is _me_ —“ he began with affectionate amusement. That left Ruby as Spock. Hamish got it and chuckled a bit.

“ _Hi, Dr. McCoy!_ ” Ruby burbled upon seeing him. “ _Look what I made today, it’s a frog puppet!_ ” She opened and closed the green fabric creature’s mouth several times for the camera, its red tongue flopping wildly. Then she turned it on Khan.

“ _The analogy is not exact_ ,” Khan admitted, as if such things were beneath him. “ _That’s very nurturing_ ,” he added to Ruby.

“ _My vegetable seeds are sprouting_ ,” Hamish added. “ _Thanks for the setup, Captain_.”

“Sure, no problem,” Kirk replied, now thoroughly distracted. The Augments had to be kept occupied, and skills that would improve their chances of survival in their eventual colony were hard to argue against.

“ _Which Augments would you want awakened?_ ” Hamish asked of Khan, who was examining Ruby’s puppet for structural integrity. Dismayingly, it seemed somewhat too small for his hand.

He had no trouble deciding. “ _Malaya Li and Banjoko Aykut_ ,” Khan said promptly. Kirk tried to recall what he knew of them from Khan’s report, but with over seventy names it was difficult.

Hamish and Ruby seemed pleased, though. “ _Oh, they’re very nice_ ,” Hamish judged, trying to adjust the puppet, which was now stuck backwards on Khan’s hand.

“ _Yes, very friendly and easy-going_ ,” Ruby confirmed in an upbeat tone. “ _Don’t tear it_ ,” she warned of her creation.

Kirk thought about asking McCoy’s opinion, but he knew what it was already. “Hang on a sec,” he told Khan. He could _see_ the man wanted to make a crack about checking with Spock first, but then his eyes slid sideways to Ruby, and Kirk switched to the _Enterprise_ Bridge.

“Hey Spock.”

“ _Hello, Captain_ ,” the First Officer returned formally. “ _Have you made any progress in your negotiations with the Nekasi?_ ”

“Mmm, not really, they seem pretty set on this fight thing,” Kirk admitted. “Hey, I’m thinking of having Khan come down and do it.”

Spock raised an eyebrow, but probably wasn’t surprised. “ _Physiologically he does seem a logical choice_ ,” he agreed, which made Kirk thrill a little, even though his decision had not really been _made_ logically. “ _No doubt he will want an Augment awakened in return_ ,” Spock predicted.

“Two, actually,” Kirk confessed. “They’ll be lonely otherwise—“ He stopped as he realized how dumb that would sound to Spock. And he didn’t _really_ need to give a reason anyway.

“ _Naturally_ ,” Spock replied unexpectedly. “ _Khan sets himself above his followers, and Hamish and Ruby are set below. One additional Augment would have no one in his or her peer group, which could lead to isolation and disciplinary problems_.”

“Exactly,” Kirk nodded, as if he’d thought of that himself. “He wants, uh, Malaya Li and Banjoko Aykut.” He’d probably mangled the names.

Spock knew who he meant and corrected him, however. Maybe this was where Kirk had developed his tolerance for Khan’s intellectual superiority. “ _If Khan’s report is accurate, they are of a jovial character most humans find pleasing_ ,” he assessed, without even looking them up.

“Great. That’s what we’re gonna do, then,” Kirk determined. “But not ‘til McCoy and I are back from the planet.”

“ _Understood, Captain_.”

Kirk switched back to Khan, who now had a puppet on each hand—one the frog, one something brown with floppy ears, maybe a dog—and was attempting to manipulate them with aid from Hamish and Ruby. Right now it was not his forte, but Kirk couldn’t find the scene ridiculous; he was certain that within a couple days Khan would be a master of the hand puppet art form. Kirk cleared his throat, interrupting Ruby’s explanations of puppet mechanics.

“Sorry,” he told her quickly, and Ruby smiled while Khan rolled his eyes. “So, two Augments it is.” As if he had found this perfectly reasonable all along.

“ _It will be so wonderful to see them again_ ,” Ruby enthused, giving Khan a hug and a kiss. “ _Oh, you won’t get hurt doing this, will you?_ ” she worried suddenly.

“ _Unlikely_ ,” Khan assured her. “ _They’ll need separate quarters from ours_ ,” he began to list to Kirk. “ _They don’t require much privacy, if you could convert a cargo bay into barracks_ —“

“ _I’ve been studying the thawing process_ ,” Hamish jumped in eagerly, more to McCoy. “ _I have some suggestions for how to make it smoother_ —“

“ _Malaya likes to dye her hair different colors sometimes_ ,” Ruby added. “ _Do people here still do that?_ ”

“Okay, no one’s getting defrosted until Bones and I are back on board,” Kirk warned. Khan clearly felt this should trump whatever was keeping them away—but the delights of this planet were kind of the _point_. “You wanna come down now?” he asked Khan. “I’ll set it up.”

“ _Excellent_ ,” Khan agreed, and Kirk knew _he_ knew he’d gotten the better deal. The planet would be great, maybe for several days, but then they would fly on, and there would still be two more Augments running around the ship.

“Don’t second-guess yourself,” McCoy advised, once Kirk had turned off the view screen. “Khan, Ruby, and Hamish have gotten on really well. Honestly I thought it would be a nightmare and we’d be keeping Khan in a coma or something until we found a rock to drop them all on.”

This had seemed perfectly reasonable when they were waiting for Khan to awaken; now, with Ruby and Hamish to consider as well, the idea felt harsh, cruel even. “He seems like the type to play a long game, though,” Kirk noted. “Lure us into a false sense of security, waking the Augments one by one…”

“Well, we have contingencies for that,” McCoy reminded him, his body language only slightly uncomfortable. Kirk was not fool enough to take the Augments on board without plans in place to neutralize them, plans that were continually updated as circumstances changed and McCoy learned more about their physiology. For many reasons, Kirk hoped they never had to use them.

A sparkle in the transport area caught their eye and Khan appeared, tall and stark in black as always. With his dark hair and pale face he looked like a harbinger of death to Kirk, who told himself to get a grip. He just hoped the local population didn’t have similar superstitions.

Khan’s eyes swept the room, the view, the arena, and his nostrils flared slightly at the scent of various foods permeating the air. He did not look interested in them at all, no doubt busily planning for his two new Augments.

“Okay, so here’s the rules,” Kirk began without preamble, handing Khan a translated copy. “Basically you have to make the guy yield. No death or permanent injury, no weapons. It’s a real fight but it seems like they give in pretty quick once they see they’re losing.”

Khan ignored his summary to read the _actual_ requirements. “And I only get my Augments if I win?” he checked.

“That’s the deal,” Kirk agreed. It put him in a somewhat conflicted position, cheering-wise—access to the planet, plus two new Augments; or no access to the planet, but Khan got his butt kicked by an alien.

“I will observe the fights first,” Khan decided, moving to a window before the arena. This was allowed, even encouraged; they had video of previous fights playing on monitors in case it was a slow day for the live show.

Kirk stood next to him, watching the latest round, his eyes darting between the combatants and Khan’s attentive face. “You can back out if you want,” he offered suddenly. “No harm, no foul.”

“Then I don’t get my family members awakened,” Khan shot back, his eyes never leaving the arena.

“Yeah, but they’re fine where they are,” Kirk pointed out. “They’re not in danger or anything.” He was feeling guilty all of a sudden, maybe because the current fighter was bleeding purple all over the arena floor. “I’m not, you know, forcing you into gladiatorial combat for my own entertainment.” Which seemed like something Admiral Marcus might have done, if he’d had enough time.

Khan’s gaze slid sideways to him momentarily, and Kirk tried to look pensive. His attempt at nobility seemed only to amuse the other man, however. “I promise I am here of my own volition, Kirk,” Khan assured him, relishing his _ability_ to assure Kirk of something. Kirk rolled his eyes, wondering again why he bothered. Oh right, didn’t want to get his head squashed like a grape. “And I will hold you to the terms of our deal when I succeed.”

“Well, no problem _there_ ,” Kirk insisted, slightly affronted at Khan’s insinuation that he would renege. “But not ‘til I say. When we’re done exploring this planet. Which I know isn’t a big attraction for you, but we’re explorers, we’re supposed to—“

“Untrue,” Khan interrupted. His attention appeared fully focused on the granite-grey alien, even though he was only resting after winning the last fight. “I am open to the possibility that alien civilizations will have ideas of value to me. It’s merely that I _knew_ we were superior to the humans of our time.”

“Oh, right.”

“The Klingons have some love poetry which is quite moving, for example.”

It took a moment for that to process in Kirk’s mind. “What?” he asked in confusion.

“Look it up,” Khan advised. “The Blistrabas translations are particularly evocative, though of course the original Klingon is purest.” Kirk was still more surprised by the love poetry, than by the fact that Khan apparently knew Klingon. Klingons had never struck him as especially romantic before—angry and smelly, perhaps, though of course he wouldn’t want to generalize, he was sure there were some cheerful, well-groomed Klingons out there somewhere. Maybe those were the ones who wrote love poetry.

“Under other circumstances we would appreciate the chance to explore an alien world,” Khan went on. “Our study would be considerably less frivolous than what _you_ have in mind,” he added with a slight sneer, having caught Kirk’s longing look towards the beach and its beautiful sunset.

“What, you, Ruby, and Hamish want to stroll through an alien market?” Kirk scoffed. “I don’t think so. You guys are not leaving the ship. I mean, unsupervised.” Present circumstances excepted. It just seemed like the ultimate bad idea, the perfect opportunity for the Augments to—to—get into trouble somehow. In a way the regular _Enterprise_ crew wouldn’t. Somehow. Well, it wasn’t like they’d run off, Khan would never leave his other crew members behind. But, come on. Kirk couldn’t give them _shore leave_. They’d—get into a fight or something.

Again, present circumstances excepted.

Kirk sighed as he realized where his train of thought had taken him, and wondered how carefully he had been led there by Khan. Or maybe Khan just liked to stand back and mess with his head, finding that rewarding in itself. “Not right now,” Kirk finally said, trying to be firm.

“No,” Khan agreed. “We will be too busy preparing for Malaya and Banjoko.” He paused. “I’m sure they would also find alien cultures educational.”

Kirk was not interested in continuing this conversation. “Are you ready yet? I’ll put your name in.”

“Yes,” Khan replied professionally. “I’ve taken the liberty of including myself on the crew roster as Special Envoy. With Mr. Spock’s permission, of course,” he added before Kirk could object. “The Nekasi require an occupational title on their paperwork.”

Kirk rolled his eyes and punched at the computer screen, adding Khan’s name to the list. “Fine. You’re up in three. Go stretch or something.” Kirk walked away before he could volunteer to make Khan captain for a day. Was it possible he had mind-manipulation powers like Ruby? No, surely things would have gone much differently if he had.

“Were you giving him a pep talk?” McCoy asked sardonically.

“I think I promised they could have shore leave sometime,” Kirk confessed immediately, and McCoy’s eyes widened. “Not right now, here,” he added quickly, “but in some vague, distant future. He says he likes Klingon love poetry,” he continued by way of distraction. “Did you know Klingons had love poetry?”

“Knowing Klingons, and knowing Khan, it’s probably violent,” McCoy predicted.

“Yeah. Anyway, he’s on the list.” Kirk looked into the arena. “This guy must be getting worn out, he’s been going all day.”

“It’s different guys,” McCoy reported, and Kirk looked at him. “At least three. The little belt’s a different color. They rotate.”

“Very observant,” Kirk noted. They watched the next round. Kirk did not see Khan anywhere, but he wouldn’t have gotten out of the visitors’ center, that was kind of the point. Anyway there were bathrooms and lounges around, and a really overpriced gift shop, so even if you didn’t get to see the rest of the planet you could pick up a snowglobe or branded t-shirt. Kirk imagined the alien script said something like, “We went to Nekasi Prime and all I got was this lousy t-shirt. Because my crew are a bunch of wimps.” He hadn’t confirmed that with Uhura yet.

Amazingly, the alien in the arena won, after a pitched battle that left him limping and bloody—that particular guy was not going to be enjoying shore leave anytime soon. Tellingly the visitors’ center also had medical facilities available, though most people went back to their ships. Kirk had been compiling a mental list of winning strategies he’d witnessed, which he would gladly share with Khan if the man would reappear.

As if by command (though of course that wasn’t so), Khan seemed to materialize in Kirk’s eyeline. “Where’ve you been?” Kirk complained.

“The gift shop,” Khan replied, indicating a small bag he carried. “Perhaps you would be good enough to hold this for me.”

McCoy took it when Kirk didn’t. “What’s in there?” Kirk demanded. “And how’d you pay for it? You didn’t steal it, did you?”

Khan’s blink somehow told him how stupid that idea was. “They accept feats of strength as currency in the gift shop,” Khan informed them. “Convenient. The Sigma Chi’s also valued feats of strength disproportionately, considering their supposedly advanced culture and technology. Do you find that humans are _always_ at such a disadvantage compared to other species? That must be terribly humiliating.”

Kirk looked up from digging in the bag McCoy held to narrow his eyes at Khan, which had precisely zero effect. “Well, what’d you get?” McCoy prompted, and Kirk opened the box he’d found.

It appeared to be some kind of jeweled bracelet. “Oh, that’s pretty,” Kirk conceded. “Is that for Ruby?”

“No, Hamish,” Khan corrected. “There’s a necklace for Ruby. They’re markers of high status to signify my favor among the other Augments.”

Kirk was not going to get in the middle of Augment sociology and dropped the bracelet back into the bag. “Not weapons or communication devices or anything?” he checked, though mainly he’d just been curious about what sort of thing Khan would buy.

“Not to my knowledge,” Khan responded. “Please, examine them at your leisure.” Which Kirk supposed was indeed a good idea, ever since he’d been given that alien vase that was really—well, let’s just say it was _not_ a vase.

“I was going to,” Kirk promised.

“Hey, you’re next, Khan,” McCoy noted. “Jim, weren’t you going to--?”

“Oh right,” Kirk remembered. “The last guy won by getting the grey guy in a headlock. Which obviously means—“

“Heads are important?” Khan supplied dryly. “Very insightful, Kirk. I’ll try to remember that.” He headed down the ramp to the arena entry.

“Hey, either way this is win-win for me!” Kirk claimed, which Khan did not bother to acknowledge.

McCoy was shaking his head. “The man can really push your buttons.” Somehow there was blame on Kirk in his tone.

“He doesn’t seem to push _your_ buttons,” Kirk muttered, taking up a good position before the arena. “Here, you hold his shopping.”

“I’m not as much fun as a target,” McCoy observed. Then a shrill whistle was heard, signaling that a new challenger had entered the ring, and Kirk devoted his attention to the combatants in the arena.

Khan and the granite alien took their marks and nodded at each other, as seemed to be the custom. Khan hunched down a bit, like he was preparing to rush the other man, which was just a foolish way of telegraphing your preferred fighting style, and the alien mimicked his posture obligingly—he seemed to be proficient in many techniques. On the other hand Kirk would not underestimate the deadly seriousness of Khan’s gaze—he was fighting for his family now, and that was the most powerful motivation for him. Kirk just hoped he was never on the receiving end of that expression.

The whistle sounded again, and Khan indeed raced towards his opponent. Instead of trying to grapple with him, however, Khan sprang from the ground, stepped onto the other man’s bent knee, and executed a perfect flip, kicking the alien in the head at the same time. He stuck the landing in a fluid crouch and waited, breathless along with Kirk, as the alien wobbled, then toppled over. The whistle trilled and the green light flashed, and Khan straightened up, pivoted, and marched towards the exit without a backwards glance.

“Oh my G-d,” Kirk breathed.

“D—n,” McCoy echoed. “That was fast.”

“Did he—I mean, is that guy okay?” Kirk was moved to ask.

“He’s fine,” Khan said dismissively from behind them, making Kirk jump. “Mild concussion.”

“Oh yeah, look, he’s moving around,” McCoy noted cheerfully. The granite alien shook himself a little and stood up, albeit with someone’s help, and staggered off-stage.

“Satisfactory?” Khan prompted.

His tone made Kirk want to find a flaw. “Kind of showing off a little, weren’t you?” he needled.

“Obviously,” Khan blinked. He took the gift shop bag from McCoy. “May I go now? We have a great deal of planning to do.”

Kirk saw the concierge hurrying over to them. “Yeah, thanks, Khan,” he agreed, trying to focus on the reward for this risk—soft golden sand, exotic fermented beverages, perhaps some alien ladies in skimpy clothing. Er, for the whole crew, of course.

“No, thank _you_ , Kirk,” Khan replied, before he went back to the transport area. The man always had to get the last word in, and in a tone that suggested _he_ was really the winner of the day.


End file.
